British Labour Movement
The birth of the Trades Union Congress Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Tuesday, 09 September 2008

tuc.jpgThe Labour Movement must learn from the lessons provided by its own history. The trade unions were created out of class struggle. To establish themselves they had to fight the hostility of Parliament, the courts, the employers and the media.  Here we trace how the TUC arose from the need to secure a legal basis for the developing union movement in the 1860s.

 

 
The Invergordon Mutiny 1931 Print E-mail
By Ed Doveton   
Thursday, 31 July 2008
In September 1931, the sailors of the Atlantic Fleet of the British Royal Navy organised an insurrection against the government in response to pay cuts and conditions of employment. Known as the Invergordon Mutiny, it is one of the historical examples of the power of class-based action in response to attacks on living standards.
 
The Tolpuddle Martyrs: trade unions and the state Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Tuesday, 13 May 2008

tolpuddle-martyrs-1.jpg

A name etched into the collective consciousness of the labour and trade union movement is that of the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs', a case which clearly demonstrated that the State is not a neutral instrument, but the means by which the ruling class will use peaceful means by preference and violence if necessary in order to maintain its power. So who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs, what did they do and what lessons do they have for socialists in the twenty-first century?

 
The Pentrich Uprising, 1817 Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Friday, 01 February 2008
brandrethexec.jpgPentrich in Derbyshire is a quiet place these days. But in 1817 it was the centre of a plot to overthrow the Government of the day. Britain had been at war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France almost continuously until 1815. When war ended, the economy slumped. It was the poor who had borne the brunt of the fighting. Now they were required to bear the economic and social fallout from the subsequent peace.
 
The Naval Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Tuesday, 15 January 2008

nore-mutiny.jpgIn April and May of 1797 the British ruling class was horrified when two naval mutinies broke out; the first was at Spithead, close to Portsmouth; the second at the Nore which marks the seaward approach to the Thames Estuary.

The State can ultimately be reduced to bodies of armed men. These bodies of armed men are used by the ruling class either to maintain its power against what it sees as internal enemies, to defend itself against foreign aggression, or in support of its own aggressive action against foreign nations. Since its power lies in its ability to threaten or actually to use force, the ruling class regards anything that jeopardises the effectiveness of the State apparatus with the utmost seriousness. This explains why mutinies in the armed forces are of such concern to them.

 
Audio File: The Miners strike Print E-mail
By Rob Sewell   
Monday, 10 December 2007
miners-strike-1984-port-tal.jpgAt the University of East Anglia recently Rob Sewell of the Socialist Appeal gave a talk on the Miners strike in Britain 1984-5. The strike was a culmination of the inevitable build up of tension between the ruling and working class. In the post-war period the decline of British imperialism had occured. The Tories of the 1980s were a rabid reaction to that phenomenon, determined to destroy the organised labour movement by taking on its most militant section, the National Union of Miners.
 
The Cato Street Conspiracy - part two Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Friday, 19 October 2007
peterloo-thumb.jpgIn the period of intense and bitter struggles described in Part 1, the massacre at Peterloo in August 1819 was just the most extreme example. Arthur Thistlewood was able to gather around him a mixed collection of other individuals equally impatient to bring matters to a head and have it out with the country's political leaders. They believed that violent direct action was the answer.
 
The Cato Street Conspiracy - part one Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Monday, 15 October 2007
cato-street.jpgThose who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them. For this reason, socialists take the study of the past struggles of working people very seriously. In 1820 six men, convicted of treason, were publicly hanged and then beheaded outside Newgate Prison in the City of London. The crime of which they had been convicted was plotting to assassinate the entire Cabinet as it sat enjoying a working dinner. This attempt at a violent coup d'etat is now largely forgotten, tucked away as a footnote in the history books. It deserves to be better known.
 
This land is our land! The story of the Kinder Scout mass trespass in 1932 Print E-mail
By Mick Brooks   
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
kinder_scout.jpgKinder Scout in the Derbyshire peak District is one of the most beautiful areas in Britain. The high moorland has no farming value, yet working people were denied all access. The area was reserved for grouse shooting, a hobby of the rich. In the Great Depression after 1929, walking and cycling were two of the only leisure activities young workers could afford. On April 24th Benny Rothman led the mass trespass that eventually gave chunks of ‘our' country back to us.

 
The General Strike of 1926: 80 years on what are the lessons? Print E-mail
By Barbara Humphries   
Thursday, 04 May 2006
On the 80th anniversary of the 1926 general strike in Britain we look at what led to it and why it eventually was defeated. In spite of the tremendous militancy of the British working class, the top leaders of the trade union movement proved to be only too willing to compromise and get the workers back to work.
 
Britain 1926 General Strike: On the Verge of Revolution Print E-mail
By Phil Mitchinson   
Thursday, 04 May 2006
Eighty years ago an earthquake shook the very foundations of British capitalism. In the greatest display of militant power in its history, the British working class moved into action in the General Strike of 1926. For 9 days, from May 3, not a wheel turned nor a light shone without the permission of the working class. In such a moment, with such power, surely it ought to have been possible to have transformed society? How can such a position have ended in defeat? (by Phil Mitchinson, originally published in May 2001)
 
Twenty years on - the lessons of the 1984-85 miners' strike: Part One Print E-mail
By Phil Mitchinson   
Friday, 05 March 2004
Twenty years ago on March 5, 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) embarked upon the most important class struggle in Britain since the general strike of 1926. A ferocious battle ensued. Billions of pounds were spent by the ruling class to crush the miners’ militancy. More than ten thousand miners were arrested; two were killed on the picket lines and countless others injured. Decades of so-called consensus were obliterated and the real and ugly face of British capitalism was exposed for all to see.
 
Twenty years on - the lessons of the 1984-85 miners' strike - Part Two Print E-mail
By Phil Mitchinson   
Friday, 05 March 2004
An essential lesson to draw from the miners’ strike is the vital role of leadership. The miners’ leaders stood head and shoulders above the majority of British trade union leaders. The leaders of the NUM were a source of inspiration. At the same time these leaders were inspired by the courage and determination of the rank and file miners, of their wives and their communities. Unfortunately courage alone is not enough to win such titanic battles. It must be accompanied by correct tactics and strategy.
 
Miners strike: “A turning point in the history of the movement” - Interview with Nigel Pearce, NUM Print E-mail
Thursday, 04 March 2004
An interview with Nigel Pearce, a member of the National Executive of the National Union of Mineworkers and working miner. He explains how the strike developed and the turning point that it represented for labour relations in Britain. In spite of the defeat he says, "We were right to fight, we had a duty to fight, and I'm proud to have fought, and I'm proud of all those I fought alongside."
 
"Strike: When Britain Went to War" Print E-mail
Monday, 26 January 2004
On Saturday 24 January, the British TV channel, Channel Four, broadcast a documentary about the miners’ strike. Anyone who tuned in looking for an objective account of the strike was doomed to be disappointed. The purpose of this documentary was not to clarify what happened but to blacken the memory of the striking miners and mislead the present generation by a combination of lies, falsifications and trivialisation. Against all the lies, distortion and venom, the Marxists will defend the memory of this epic struggle and pass on the great lessons to the new generation that is destined to carry on the fight to a victorious conclusion.
 
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